ANNUAL REPORT 



OF 



THE INSPECTOR OF SALMON FISHERIES 

 FOR SCOTLAND. 



MR. CALDERWOOD'S REPORT. 



Fishery Board for Scotland, 

 April 1909. 



I have the honour to submit my Report for the year 1908. My 

 inspections took me round a considerable part of the coast which is 

 fished by means of fixed engines, more especially in the West and 

 North Highlands, and on the most thickly-netted areas in Scotland 

 — the East Coast between Montrose and Aberdeen. 



The old-standing difficulty, which has been felt since the regulation 

 of salmon fisheries in any systematic manner has been attempted, 

 and which has been repeatedly referred to, not only in official reports 

 but in evidence before Royal Commissions, viz., the difficulty of 

 obtaining any reliable information respecting actual takes of salmon 

 now or in the past, was most forcibly brought to my notice. Very 

 rarely is a Clerk of a District Fishery Board in a position to inform 

 one as to whether sea or river fisheries are really improving or 

 declining. Tenants of net fisheries do not care to make any state- 

 ments for fear their rents will thereby be adversely affected. One is 

 accustomed to hear that the season is a poor one or is the worst on 

 record. Officially one has no means of independent judgment. 



During the last two or three years, however, I have noticed that in 

 certain localities reports of bad fishing on the coast have been 

 accompanied by a reduction of nets and working expenses on the 

 part of the tacksmen, and I am further aware that in a few instances 

 ■ fishings of very considerable importance are to be thrown up if rents 

 are not reduced, or, again, that rents have been reduced after the 

 production on the part of the tacksmen of figures showing the returns 

 of recent years. 



